Blog Author: cmires

We’re proud to be involved in the prototype augmented-reality cell phone application for phillyhistory.org, the online database of historic photographs and maps from the City Archives, the Water Department, the Office of the City Representative, the Free Library, and the Library Company of Philadelphia, originally built by Azavea Inc. The app is available at no cost for both iPhone and Android smart phones. The Encyclopedia’s editors participated as advisers to the project and coordinated text for a group of photographs, with Doreen Skala researching and writing the text.

The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia project appears in the Works in Progress section of the Autumn 2011 issue of The American Scholar, the magazine published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society.  Writer Chloe Taft calls attention to our project’s widespread public participation and to our web site as a growing gateway to the region’s digital resources.

This week’s news presented an ideal opportunity to connect history with the news, using our Backgrounders feed on Twitter to reach journalists and other interested readers.  When WHYY posted its report that Autumn Adkins Graves, the president of Girard College, will step down at the end of the school year, we added background with our Girard College essay as well as a link to Temple University’s outstanding “Civil Rights in a Northern City” project.  These resources, combined with the news account, call attention to the significance of the service of President Graves as the first female and African American head of this landmark Philadelphia institution.

We began the fall with a full house at the “Athens of America” roundtable at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  Please join us also for the following events:

This Saturday, October 1, we are a co-sponsor for the Association of Philadelphia Tour Guides’ second annual “Great Twelve-Hour Tour” of Philadelphia. It’s a River to River, Pine to Vine, Rain or Shine event, and it’s free – join any segment or spend the day. For more information, go to:  http://www.phillyguides.org/great-tour-2011.aspx .

Registration is open now for the next two programs of the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable discussion series:

• “Workshop of the World” on Wednesday, October 19, 6:30-8 p.m., at the Tacony branch of the Free Library.

• “Corrupt and Contented” on Tuesday, November 15, 6:30-8 p.m. at Philadelphia Media Network Headquarters (the Inquirer Building, 400 N. Broad Street).

For information and advance registration – strongly advised! – go to:  https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/events

Teachers, an additional educators’ workshop will be offered on the theme of “Workshop of the World” on Tuesday, November 9, 3:30-6:30 p.m. at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. To sign up for this free workshop, go to: http://www.hsp.org/node/2311

We are so pleased by your interest and participation in creating The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. Thank you!

Our survey of recently published works about Philadelphia now covers books, articles, and dissertations since 1982. To find the most up-to-date research on numerous topics, link to the survey on our Bibliographic Survey page.

Building on the widespread interest in our recent “City of Neighborhoods, City of Homes” program at the Philadelphia History Museum, we’re pleased to call the following opportunity to your attention: 

The Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent has reopened with a new exhibition concept, a community history gallery featuring exhibitions designed and curated by neighborhood organizations about the work they do and the contributions they have made to the fabric of life in the city. One goal of this new exhibition gallery concept is to give Philadelphians an active voice in presenting the city’s history based upon historical, social, cultural, intellectual, or political concepts. The Philadelphia Voices Gallery will present three compelling exhibitions each year that give voice to the ways that Philadelphia’s community and neighborhood based organizations address issues including hunger, violence, homelessness, discrimination, housing, education, immigration, health, environment, and work.

For information on how to participate in this exciting opportunity, visit this web page:
http://www.philadelphiahistory.org/communityhistorygallery

Help us grow! During the summer of 2012, The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia seeks volunteer authors to contribute essays related to the themes of City of Neighborhoods, the Cradle of Liberty, and the Workshop of the World. Prospective authors must have expertise in their chosen subjects demonstrated by previous publications and/or advanced training in historical research.  For further information, visit our list of available topics.

We are grateful to all of our volunteer authors and editors who are making The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia possible.  Every day we receive hundreds of page views from information seekers, including teachers, students, and interested readers not just locally but also across the country and around the world.  Our authors include the most prominent historians of Philadelphia as well as young scholars making their marks with new research and other subject experts.

For our next expansion, we seek volunteer authors to contribute essays related to the built and natural environment and regional events and traditions.  We also seek volunteer authors to write about counties in the region, and some topics remain available to continue expansion of the themes of City of Neighborhoods, the Cradle of Liberty, and the Workshop of the World.  For more information and to see a list of available topics, click here.

Thanks to everyone who has added comments, questions, and suggestions to our proposal in the Knight News Challenge.  The competition closes this Saturday, March 17, [update: Thursday, March 29], so please continue to participate – you may also reply to others who have posted their comments.  Here’s the link:

http://newschallenge.tumblr.com/post/18812768763/backgrounder-blasts-from-the-past-for-busy-reporters

As you have seen from previous announcements, our proposal would expand the Encyclopedia project with news-related content and provide historical backgrounders to journalists, via Twitter.  We think this will also interest teachers, policy makers, and everyone who seeks connections between the past and the present.  Over the last couple of weeks, we have been experimenting with the Twitter feed, which is available to follow here:

https://twitter.com/#!/Backgrounders

Thank you for your participation – as always!

While so many this week are remembering the Titanic on the 100th anniversary of that epic disaster, WHYY turned its attention to “epic failures” in Philadelphia’s history.  We helped by putting reporter Peter Crimmins in touch with Michael Zuckerman, the author of our “City of Firsts” essay, and our associate editor Stephanie Wolf.  Their insights into such memorable events as the Bicentennial and Sesquicentennial were featured along with others’ comments about the Tram to Nowhere, the MOVE bombing, and other “epic failures.”  What would you add?  Visit Newsworks to join the discussion.  (And keep coming back to the Encyclopedia – we will add essays on the Sesquicentennial and Centennial celebrations this summer.)

The deadline for comments to our Knight News Challenge proposal has been extended to March 29. Please see the links in the next post – it only takes two clicks to “like” us, and we also welcome comments, suggestions, and questions. This week we have more than doubled our “likes” – thank you! This is vital to our chances of moving to the next round of consideration.

We are pleased to announce the creation of a list-serv to build and sustain the growing community of interest in The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. Anyone who would like to receive periodic updates about the project is invited to join the list. To join, send an e-mail to Howard Gillette at hfg@camden.rutgers.edu or add a comment expressing your interest to this post.

Our project reached an important milestone this week with the awarding of a two-year, $300,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. We are so grateful to the many organizations and individuals who have brought our project to this point: more than thirty partner organizations, more than 150 authors and editors, our digital publishing team and colleagues at our home base at Rutgers-Camden, and of course the users of the encyclopedia who attend our events, offer valuable suggestions, and use this resource every day. The NEH funds will support the next two-year period of accelerated content development, especially topics that span the Greater Philadelphia region.  Check the site often and watch us grow!

We’re pleased to call attention to a new documentary produced by area high school and college students under the direction of one of the Encyclopedia project’s advisers, Professor Amy Hillier at the University of Pennsylvania.  Legacy of Courage: W.E.B. DuBois and The Philadelphia Negro, was created as part of the Mapping DuBois Project.

We are pleased to present new content and a new look for The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia web site. Thanks to Brian Jacobs at Avencia Inc., our site is more attractive, easier to navigate, and offers more ways to become involved with the project. The site also demonstrates our commitment to highlight the resources of the region by presenting and linking organizations, historic sites, and collections. Our banner images come from the collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the color thumbnail photographs appear by courtesy of ushistory.org; and our home page features historical photographs from the Philadelphia City Archives.

Along with the new look, we introduce the first essays produced for the Encyclopedia.  Each includes links to historic sites and collections, and each offers the opportunity to add stories and offer suggestions or corrections. Watch for new topics as we begin to build The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia!

Al Lee, one of the discussion facilitators at the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable program on “Philadelphia, the Place that Loves You Back,” provided us with this report:

If you were showing someone around Philadelphia, where would you take them? Art museums? Restaurants? Historic sites? I posed that question for group discussion during the Greater Philadelphia Roundtable Series “Philadelphia, The Place that Loves you Back.”

Everyone knows that Philadelphia is home to the iconic symbol, the Liberty Bell. But is that all we’re known for? Or is it cheesesteaks and a fictional boxer who served as the ultimate underdog? Maybe it’s none of the above and we’re really packing them in due to our unique shops and independent boutiques. Are they on your “ to do list ?”

Here is what a sample of local Philadelphians said:

“I would definitely recommend talking them to Independence Hall and Society Hill.”

“I don’t think people know how big Philadelphia really is. I would take them to the outskirts such as Chestnut Hill, Germantown and especially Longwood Gardens.

“I would take them where I would like to hang out on weekends. The Reading Terminal Market. Rittenhouse Square. Farmers Markets.  First Fridays. I love the Architectural Walking tours offered by the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia. College Campuses and whatever events are coming up on the calendar.”

“No question, I would be sure they saw all the art galleries and ethnic neighborhoods including sections of Chinatown, South Philly, and West Philly. We would go on a cultural eating tour and enjoy all the outdoor art in the process.”

From this small survey, many did not even mention seeing the Liberty Bell or having a cheesesteak. Maybe we should change the slogan to “Philadelphia, America’s best kept secret.”

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Thanks to Al and all of our volunteer discussion facilitators!  Don’t miss the next Greater Philadelphia Roundtable – the last in our current series – coming up on March 28.  For information and advance registration, visit https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/events.